loved Professor Yamashita's sense of humor, as I am sure all of you did.

I am glad that we learned about Korea, as I think it has been discussed the least. I can see from the syllabus, that we will be learning more about Korea on Dec. 2, when we will all weigh a few more pounds (Thanksgiving)!

As for the readings for this week, I found the "Harmonious Functioning of the Five organs" to be fascinating indeed.
I did not know that the five sense organs have their own taste preferences, or at least they do according to the esoteric scripture. Perhaps they are correct, as in China a lot of tea is consummed and there is very little heart trouble and people live long lives. By contrast, in the USA, we have a lot of thin people who are very pale and sickly looking. According to Chinese thought, this is because we don't drink tea. ?????
Chinese thought is that the organ of the heart is strengthened by drinking tea and thus freed from all illnesses. They also believe that drinking tea is an emotional boost and imporant when we are in "poor spirits" (upset, depressed, sad, in today's terms)because the tea will put the heart in order and will dispel all illness. When the whole body feels weak, devitalized and deressed, it is a sign tht the heart is failing. We should drink lots of tea and our energy will be restored to full strength. It is certainly worth a try!!!!

I agree with what you say about the Pillow book. It is so interesting because of its total lack of structure, don't you think? As Westerners, we are normally looking for a beginning, a middle and an end to our literary selections but the Pillow Book is great evidence that may not be necessary to hold our interest. Also interesting that the writings were intended for a select few and not composed for the masses.

I really enjoyed how professor Yamashita made a true effort to present his material in a way that might be most helpful to us as educators. I liked the idea of framing the information in "puzzles" -what a great way to engage students (and educators) in a new topic! Also, the integration of documents and pictures was interesting.

I would love to take his entire class instead of just a quick overview. My history/social studies education is sadly lacking, and it feels like a lot of these classes are beyond me. Since I will be using what we do in this class in relation to some piece of literature (as yet unchosen), I'll have to go back and sift through all this information.

Has anybody ever read the novel 'Shogun' ? I read it for leisure as a young lady back in Kenya, about 25 years ago, and got hooked onto East Asian novels and movies from then on. It's a pity that as according to Professor Yamashita, James Clavell (author of the novel) was giving a really westernized or modernized version of a 'Samurai's life in this account. I however loved the story and in all its 1,000 plus pages, I got fascinated and have never lost the feeling of being thrown into an ancient East Asian culture, Samurai experience, royal feeling and the like, everytime I watch a movie or read a novel (a rare luxury nowadays because of my busy life in the U.S.). I enjoy Crouching Tiger...I enjoy any Jackie Chan and any other East Asian actors' movies because, I just respect their disciplined lives, their eclectic lives, their mysteries and untold pasts that seem so full...I guess I am just biased...

Mr. Yamashita was so funny. I enjoyed his humor so much. I really liked how he organized his lecture for us to be able to teach it. I will defenitely use this idea of puzzles in my classroom. When I was going through my notes it made a lot of sense to bring foward material as puzzles to the students so that they are figuring out the information themselves. I found so much of his lecture interesting, for example the divide of Japan by blood type. The origins of Japan are really fascinating. I also enjoyed his stories that went along with many of his pictures on the slides, especially that of him trying to get into the grounds of the burial tomb. Can't wait to use his puzzles!

This is a fascinating passage. Could you photocopy the title page and the relevant other pages?
Thanks.